Sep. 7, 2013

Berry Gordy Jr. moved Motown Records, founded in Detroit in 1959, to Los Angeles in 1972.

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Detroit Free Press Business Writer

Detroit's skyline in 1941. / Detroit Free Press file photo

A closer look: ‘Devil’s Night: And Other True Tales of Detroit’

What it is: A book first published in 1990, written by Pontiac-born Ze’ev Chafets. Why it’s controversial: Chafets interviews Detroiters about the Motor City’s decline but has a “penchant for sweeping generalizations,” according to Publisher’s Weekly. What’s happening now: The book was rereleased as an e-book through Kindle on Tuesday and is being released in paperback on Sept. 17. Why it’s being republished: Talk show host Rush Limbaugh has used it as a basis for his analysis of Detroit and has quoted from it on air.

From left, Alfred Taubman, Mayor Coleman Young and Max Fisher are all smiles at the ground-breaking ceremony for the new development on the river called Riverfront. It will include 604 one- and two-bedroom apartments in two towers 34 feet from the water, a 77-boat marina, 24-hour banking, shops, and other amenities. / Detroit Free Press file photo

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Radio show host Rush Limbaugh, along with a number of other conservative pundits, finds Detroit the perfect symbol of everything wrong with liberal ideals and policies promoted by Democrats.

Limbaugh singled out former Democratic Mayor Coleman Young as the biggest factor, giving credit for the theory to Pontiac-born Ze’ev Chafets, author of a controversial book written in 1990 called “Devil’s Night: And Other True Tales of Detroit.” In the early 1990s, the book had critics and supporters — including inside the Free Press.

Limbaugh has talked about Detroit’s bankruptcy on several occasions on his radio program. In addition to Young, Limbaugh blamed Detroit’s downfall on failed Democratic Party ideals, health benefits secured by unions for city workers, and liberalism in general.

The “Truth about Detroit” took a look at several statements from Limbaugh about Detroit history and the causes of the July 18 bankruptcy filing. Some are clearly wrong, some are correct, and others are debatable.

Limbaugh did not respond to e-mails sent to “The Rush Limbaugh Show” seeking comment for this piece.

Claim: Mayor Coleman Young caused the riot in 1967 and “white flight to suburbia,” Limbaugh said during a July 30 interview on Fox News with Greta Van Susteren.

Truth: Young was not elected mayor until 1973, and Detroit’s population decline began in the 1950s.

Claim: The last Republican mayor of Detroit served in 1957.

Truth: Republican Mayor Louis Mariani was elected in 1957 and left office in 1962.

Claim: Limbaugh said on his July 22 broadcast that Detroit was the birthplace of employer-sponsored health care benefits, and it’s ironic that the cost of those benefits has helped kill Detroit: “Detroit, now bankrupt, was where companies first started offering health care benefits and other perks in order to compete for skilled labor during World War II when there were wage and price controls. ...

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And so with wage and price controls, the market will always outsmart government and limits, and so the birth of health care benefits was created in Detroit as a means of becoming attractive to people seeking good jobs, because there were wage and price controls in place in WWII. And now those very benefits have killed the city of their birth, the birth of the health care benefit.”

Truth: In 1964, the UAW negotiated fully paid hospitalization, surgical and medical insurance for its retirees, so Detroit is, in essence, a birthplace of health care benefits. Detroit has an estimated $5.7 billion in future health care liabilities. But Detroit is far from unique in offering city employees health care benefits. Employees of virtually all other cities, many financially healthy, also provide the benefit.

Claim: “It’s easy to forget that not that long ago, Detroit was the richest and most successful city in the country — it was the envy of the world — and now it’s the biggest city in the U.S. to ever go bankrupt,” Limbaugh said on a July 22 broadcast, according to his website.

Truth: Limbaugh is largely correct. In the early to mid-1950s, many experts say Detroit’s population touched 2 million. Dubbed “The Arsenal of Democracy” for its broad and deep manufacturing base that aided U.S. armament in World War II, Detroit’s economy employed thousands and created many fortunes. It is indeed the largest U.S. city to file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection.

Claim: “The carmakers weren’t the only big industry in Detroit. Remember a guy named Berry Gordy? Motown? The most successful black-owned business in history, born and grown in Detroit. But, like other successful businesses, they left long ago,” Limbaugh also said on his July 22 broadcast.

Truth: Gordy did, indeed, move Motown to Los Angeles in 1972. And Chrysler decided to move its headquarters from Highland Park, a city surrounded by Detroit, to Auburn Hills in 1992. Of course, General Motors stayed, and some companies, like Compuware, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and Quicken, have moved most or all operations to the city from the suburbs.

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Claim: One of Limbaugh’s theories behind the downfall of Detroit is that it’s mostly Young’s fault. “Under Mayor Coleman Young, Detroit had an official nationalist doctrine that referred to the riots as the rebellion and the former white administrations that used to run the city as occupying powers,” Limbaugh said on his program on July 23, according to his website. “That’s how he talked about them. He was leading the rebellion of the city inside, you know, south of Eight Mile, and the occupying powers were outside the city.”

Truth: Young, who served from 1974 to 1994, did have a combative style that often alienated the suburbs. But the mayor’s biggest supporters were powerful white businessmen, including then-General Motors Chairman Roger Smith, renowned mall developer Alfred Taubman and oil and real estate magnate Max Fisher.

Robin Boyle, a professor of urban studies at Wayne State University, said Young also persuaded GM to build a new manufacturing plant in Detroit that now builds the Chevrolet Volt, and he worked hard to persuade Mike Ilitch to relocate Ilitch Holdings, parent company of Little Caesars, to Detroit.

“Coleman Young worked extremely hard to bring business into the city,” Boyle said. “That’s not to say he did not use some strong language, or wasn’t outspoken. But I think that overall, there were many other factors that led to the city’s financial crisis.”

Claim: “It was clear that Coleman Young harbored hatred for the whites who had fled the city after the black riots,” Limbaugh said. “This caused downtown Detroit to become a ghost town, which, according to Chafets’ book, was fine with the mayor.”

Truth: Chafets’ view of Young is a bit more nuanced. “I wouldn’t say that Coleman Young was the culprit,” Chafets told the Free Press in late August. “I would say he made one very, very wrong calculation, and the city has never been able to get out from under it. The calculation was antagonizing rather than working with the whites who had left the city.”